Slitherine

He charged me. He charged a BG of longbows next to a BG of offensive spears. He charged with a 5 base wide offensive spears BG. WE had a impact then melee, then a second round. On the third round, my opponent lost his left end front rank base of offensive spears. Trust me THAT base was zapped hard (we rolled dice section by section.

When he removed that base...we both had a thought (Two old farts thinking at the same time ). Make that the same thought twice.........The base lost was an end front rank base. HOWEVER, should it /a base from the back/second rank have been removed instead?

Removal of his base from the front rank, a base with none in contact behind it left my side of the fight with two bases (first and second rank) without contact with the enemy. It was not possible to shift to the left.

Sooo....should a second rank base have been removed instead?

Sorry if I am rambling on. I do try to give enough info up front.

The base that dies is the front rank one facing the enemy causing the hurt but it must then be immediately replaced if possible with a rear rank base from somewhere else in the BG.

Front rank bases are removed first and replaced with any from a rear rank.

What they said ... so eventually you will end up with rear rank base fighting at the front.

Si

Thank you for the quick responses guys. Us old farts "should have" remembered about moving a base over to replace that front ranker. ....We will now.

Don't worry, "old farts" are in good company here!

Enjoy the FOG ....

Si

If a front rank base dies from shooting, does it have to be replaced immediately, or can it be left as a space until it becomes necessary to reform?

I thought it had to be replaced, but others thought not. I was shooting at the end of a single rank target at the time, so the replacement base had to come from the other end of the target BG.

shall wrote:Don't worry, "old farts" are in good company here!

Enjoy the FOG ....

Si

Do you know what the difference between a young man and an old man are?

An old man has dry dreams and wet farts.

Ian

lawrenceg wrote:If a front rank base dies from shooting, does it have to be replaced immediately, or can it be left as a space until it becomes necessary to reform?

I thought it had to be replaced, but others thought not. I was shooting at the end of a single rank target at the time, so the replacement base had to come from the other end of the target BG.

When shooting you must replace destroyed front rank bases with rear rank ones but if the BG is in a single rank then there is no need to replace destroyed bases unless the BG is split as a result.

I thin the key is the close combat in this passage: "Other bases of the battlegroup immediately shuffle up to retain contiguity and fill vacated front rank positions. All vacated front rank close combat fighting positions (except overlaps) must be filled if the battlegroup has any bases available to do so. Non-front rank bases must be used if any are available ..."

so what is the point of removing the dead base from the front when it seems to automaticly be replaced from one in the back? could you not just remove the back one?

spud wrote:so what is the point of removing the dead base from the front when it seems to automaticly be replaced from one in the back? could you not just remove the back one?

Generally, yes.

It's a technicality so that it's clear where the base is coming from.

For example, the Medieval Danes have front rank Halberdiers back rank Crossbowmen. So there is no doubt in anyone's mind that the second rank crossbowmen would have to replace the halberdier casualty in this case. However, if the formation is 4 deep you could put a halberdier in:

AS follows (fight to the bottom of the page):

= crossbowmen
=halberdier




casualty must be:




However when it's like this:






the casualty could end up like this:






Hope this makes sense.

Probably not a big deal with things like the Halberdier/Crossbowmen, but a very big deal with some other mixed formations who may have unprotected guys in the second rank

Ian

spud wrote:so what is the point of removing the dead base from the front when it seems to automaticly be replaced from one in the back? could you not just remove the back one?

P116: "Other bases of the battle group immediately shuffle up to retain contiguity and fill vacated front rank position". BG need to mantain current front rank if there are bases in rear ranks not only if BG is in close combat. Otherwise, BG would perform a contraction of its front, that is a change of formation, which is different from a replacement.